The next leg of our trip through Ceylon was to take us by train from Colombo to Anuradhapura. The busy main railway station in Colombo can be confusing to navigate, especially if you cannot read. This electronic display periodically offered Latin script too, but it was functioning only partially and eventually stopped functioning altogether. Questions elicited helpful answers, which however you were rarely quite sure of having understood properly.

Trains in Ceylon normally have first, second and third-class carriages and as we were going to find out they are normally overcrowded. This train bound for Anuradhapura (and then the north of the island) required advance reservations and there was only one class (we were unable to determine whether it was supposed to be first class or second class — third class does not have individual seats as here, but wooden benches). At the station there was a special counter just for this train, in front which we were standing in line when it was announced that all seats for the following day had been sold. Luckily we wanted to go the day after. On that day all the seats were indeed taken, but on the other hand there were no people crowding the corridors — the multitude of handholds makes it clear that the carriages are in fact designed with this in mind. I don’t think people boarding the train at subsequent stations still had to have reservations. This train never did get crowded, in fact later on there were free seats. Among the passengers there were many tourists, but natives too.

From the 4th c. BCE until the 11th c. Anuradhapura was the capital of the main Buddhist kingdom in the island. A tree supposedly grown from a cutting of the original Bodhi tree (under which Buddha found enlightenment) still flourishes here. Clearly the city was once huge; what mostly now remains are the brick-built dagobas (stupas), along with some traces of royal palaces. Above: Jetavanaramaya.

Seen from the south. The height of this dagoba is given as 122 metres, and it is said to have been built by King Mahasena (reigned 274-301). The sign asks you to take off your shoes before stepping on the platform.

For centuries Anuradhapura was almost deserted. „Anooradapoora, so long the capital of Ceylon, is now a small mean village, in the midst of a desert [clearly used here in the sense of uninhabited area]. A large tank, numerous stone pillars, two or three immense tumuli, (probably old dagobahs,) are its principal remains. It is still considered a sacred spot; and is a place of pilgrimage,“ John Davy wrote in 1821. Today at least „tank“ usually refers to the artificial lakes that are so typical of the island — and of which there are in fact several amid the ruins, which are so extensive that you had better have a motor vehicle or a bicycle to explore them. Maybe Davy means a rectangular pond, such as the so-called Elephants‘ Pond, 159 metres long. It seems that the dagobas, until then overgrown, have been restored only from the 1960s onwards. I could not find out when the photograph above was taken. The modern, rather unsightly town situated next to the ruins is also quite extensive and looks quite new. When and why did it come into being? Was this a result of the rediscovery of the site by pilgrims and tourists? The railway line from Colombo, which reached Anuradhapura in 1904, no doubt contributed too.

„As a form of respect kindly dress in white clothing at this sacred venue.“ (At the entrance to the Bodhi tree.) The natives don’t always do it either, but you do see a lot of white here and at other, similar sites in the island.

The cutting of the original Bodhi tree is said to have been planted here in 249 BCE, which would make it the oldest tree on the planet with a known planting date. It is surrounded by other specimens of the same species (Ficus religiosa). The wall in the foreground, supposedly built unter King Kirti Sri Rajasinha (reigned 1747-82, in Kandy) surrounds the precinct.